Autobiografía subalterna

In this article, I examine, from a theoretical perspective, the access of subaltern subjects to a place of enunciation (Ribeiro) through contemporary autobiographical narration. This enables a partial overcoming of their condition of being spoken for, while simultaneously serving as a representation of the collective to which they belong. Both dimensions of representation (Darstellung and Vertretung, in Spivak’s terms) function as both tools and limits of the sayable: on the one hand, they challenge testimonial injustice by granting access to the literary field as authors; on the other, they expose tensions with hermeneutical injustice (Fricker), as legibility—even when resisting normative discourses— is never guaranteed. Subaltern autobiography, understood as a practice of identity, thus emerges as a form of self-affirmation and collective mediation, even when it inevitably involves substituting for the integral witness (Agamben) who remains absent in any act of representation.

Injustice · Normative · Subaltern · Testimonial · Witness · Autobiographical and Biographical Writing · Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism · German Colonialism and Identity Studies